Advance of the cut-price stores

European low-cost chains such as Aldi, once seen as supermarkets’ poor relations, are winning over the middle classes

IT IS 59 years since Karl and Theo Albrecht opened a no-frills grocery store amid the postwar ruins of bombed-out Essen in Germany, selling essential products at bargain prices.

Named Aldi after the words Albrecht Discount, the chain has become one of the fast-est-growing retailers in the world, delivering sales increases of 8% a year since 1998. In Britain and Ireland, Aldi is opening more than 50 stores a year as part of an ambitious plan to almost quadruple the size of the company from 400 shops at present to 1,500.

The group is at the forefront of a gradual but unmistakable shift in shopping as low-cost supermarkets - others are Lidl and Netto - have enjoyed a huge surge in popularity although so far they have not dented the market share of the traditional giants such as Tesco and J Sainsbury.